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    Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin: Aviator, Aerialist & Aeronaut
    Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin: Aviator, Aerialist & Aeronaut
    Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin: Aviator, Aerialist & Aeronaut
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin: Aviator, Aerialist & Aeronaut

    By Dr. Jack Stokes Ballard

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    About this ebook

    At the beginning of the twentieth century, aerialist Ivy Baldwin had achieved celebrity status as a premier tightrope walker, aeronaut and aviation pioneer. He executed astonishing and perilous performances across America and internationally, including Mexico and the Far East. First by flying balloons, he went on to pilot dirigibles and, finally, aircraft. In his later years in Colorado, he became famous for crossing canyons on a tightrope. Historian Jack Stokes Ballard deftly captures Baldwin's colorful and hazardous life from childhood runaway to aviation record holder.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe History Press
    Release dateJul 13, 2020
    ISBN9781439670613
    Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin: Aviator, Aerialist & Aeronaut
    Author

    Dr. Jack Stokes Ballard

    Jack Stokes Ballard holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in American history from UCLA, taught history at the Air Force Academy and AFROTC at Occidental College, served a career in the U.S. Air Force and retired as chief of the Plans and Requirements Division at Lowry Air Force Base. He worked for the Martin Marietta Corporation for twelve years. He is the author of eight books.

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      Book preview

      Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin - Dr. Jack Stokes Ballard

      Author

      PREFACE

      Many a word has been written about the man Ivy Baldwin.¹ His name appeared numerous times in newspapers and entertainment notices from San Francisco to Baltimore and especially in Quincy, Illinois, and Denver, Colorado. From 1890 to 1953, he achieved celebrity status as a premier American aerialist and aeronaut. As his reputation spread, he was known by thousands of average citizens who were amazed at his courageous exploits. People literally looked up to Ivy Baldwin because he skillfully performed in the air, whether as a tightrope walker, balloonist, tower diver, parachutist or aviator. His death-defying exhibitions attracted thousands of paying spectators, and he acted as the headliner for various amusement parks and summer celebrations. Like so many television, movie and music stars today, Ivy Baldwin, in his time, was an extraordinary and fearless entertainer.

      As Ivy Baldwin’s life story unfolds, however, one quickly learns that he was more than an entertainment celebrity—he was an aviation pioneer. From his initial time as a balloonist in traveling shows, through his time as a balloonist in the army and his experiences in the Spanish-American War, to his many crashes in airplanes, Ivy Baldwin had a serious vision of man successfully navigating across the sky. He built, tested and flew balloons, dirigibles and airplanes. In addition, he earnestly sought to improve balloons and their support equipment. Pragmatically, he explored and participated in attempts at aerial photography, the assessment of air currents and the means of obtaining directional flight. As a daring experimenter, he eventually established a number of aviation firsts.

      Ivy Baldwin as a young man, pictured about the time he toured as a balloonist and entertainer with the Baldwin Brothers Show. History Colorado Collection.

      The combination in one man of a consummate and celebrated entertainer and a pragmatic experimenter and pioneering participant in the fast-developing flight vehicles of the time made Ivy Baldwin a complex, interesting and unusual individual. However, his exploits, exciting as they were in the newspapers, did not fully define Baldwin’s character and especially his notable contributions to the beginning of man’s ability to fly. I hope this biography fills that void while telling the story of Ivy Baldwin’s remarkable career.

      A deliberate attempt has been made to incorporate the colorful newspaper descriptions of Ivy Baldwin’s performances and his near-death experiences. At the same time, care has been taken in assessing the accuracy of comments, as many errors and contradictions arose when comparing articles. Ivy Baldwin’s scrapbook, held by the History Colorado Museum library, served as a starting point for Ivy Baldwin research. The scrapbook contained news clippings that Baldwin collected over many years.

      The Denver Public Library, the Friends of Historic Fort Logan Archives, Colorado Aviation Historical Society Archives and the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum Research Library provided important material and offered kind assistance in research and writing. Especially appreciated assistance came from Wendy Hall at the Carnegie Library for Local History of the Boulder Public Library and Nancy C. Dixon at the Quincy Museum in Quincy, Illinois. Ron Newberg, George Paxton and Judy Zelio reviewed the manuscript and offered critical and valuable comments that strengthened and improved this biography of Ivy Baldwin.

      —Jack Stokes Ballard

      1

      A DARING CAREER BEGINS

      He knew absolutely nothing about a balloon, but he had the nerve, and that is the stuff that aeronauts are made of.

      —Houston Daily Post, 1905

      The impressive list included acrobat, aeronaut, balloonist, parachute jumper, trapeze artist, tightrope walker, entertainer and aviator. Those were some of the titles assigned to one man, the legendary Ivy Baldwin. Also, citizens from many other countries, and especially those from the state of Colorado, attached to those titles such colorful descriptive terms as reckless, crazy, daring and courageous. While Ivy Baldwin truly earned all those titles, they did not fully capture Ivy Baldwin the man. He had a unique personality and was an individual whom many never knew. Without a doubt, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ivy Baldwin, the master of so many entertaining aerial acts, reigned at or near the top of the United States’ professional aeronauts. Few believed he could be surpassed in his aerial artistry and achievements, and they made him famous in his time and for the following generations.²

      Born in Houston, Texas, on July 31, 1866, the fourth son of John H. and Elizabeth Ivy, the future Ivy Baldwin entered the world as William Ivy. In the family, he would always be called Willie. Little is known about his early childhood in south Texas, other than that he was a newsboy and shined shoes. As the years passed, he remained small in stature but very athletic.³ He would never exceed five foot three and one-half inches and 112 pounds. Ivy’s wiry, slender frame and wide-eyed face with very dark, bushy eyebrows gave him a long-enduring boyish appearance. Noted author Gene Fowler said Ivy had squirrel-shooter eyes, meaning they were intense and piercing.⁴ Perhaps the early arrival of a mustache helped establish that he had reached manhood. He lacked large, well-defined or articulated muscles, but he was especially strong. Very early, using his remarkable balance and body flexibility, he demonstrated gymnastic skills.⁵ He would put his size and these notable physical attributes to advantage as he rapidly evolved into a circus acrobat and trapeze performer.

      Ivy ran away from his Houston home when he was thirteen.⁶ He claimed that his father beat him as a reason for leaving the family.⁷ He went to San Antonio and sold the San Antonio Express newspaper. One time, while watching a man walk the tightrope, he determined to try the stunt. He even did a walk across the San Antonio River. Later, while crossing a lake near Pedro Springs,⁸ he caught the eye of the owner of the Thayer-Noyes Circus. Hired on the spot, he then traveled with the circus and reportedly could do seven acts a day, quickly becoming one of the best performers. Later, he toured with the Sells Brothers Circus and soon developed into a more rounded showman by adding acrobatic and trapeze acts. Ivy often used an assumed billing name, as he feared his parents might pursue him. His early departure from his home and his subsequent circus performances reflected his adventuresome spirit and a strong desire to try almost anything. An element of wanderlust, appropriate for the circus shows, would dominate many years in Ivy’s life.

      Ivy’s daring acts caused many injuries. He suffered a broken ankle and ribs at Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1882, when a drunk rode a horse into some men holding his tightrope guywires.⁹ Regardless of injuries, Ivy enjoyed the itinerant lifestyle and the attention he received in a traveling circus show.

      One of Ivy’s favorite stories of his early years—and he had many of them—concerned a tightrope walk in Baltimore. During a Shriners’ convention, he was to do a wire walk from 120 feet over a street. After the first performance, he encountered the police, who informed him that the city had an ordinance banning any aerial act without a safety net under it. He received a fine of five dollars. Ivy then went to the port docks, bought an old fishing net and laid it on the pavement under the wire for the next day’s exhibition. He succeeded in avoiding another fine, and he delighted in claiming that he had out-foxed the police and city authorities.¹⁰

      Ivy expanded his circus skills to balloon ascensions, and he claimed that he made his first balloon ascension in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1879.¹¹ He described his introduction to ballooning this way: One of the regular men with the circus that used to make the balloon ascension, he got on a drunk, didn’t show up, so the manager asked me if I could go up and I went up with the balloon, and after that I took to ballooning.¹²

      Later, a Houston newspaper interview made the observation that he knew absolutely nothing about a balloon, but he had the nerve, and that is the stuff that aeronauts are made of.¹³ Indeed, Ivy would become noted for his nerve, a characteristic that attracted paying spectators.

      The fearless adolescent William Ivy soon caught the attention of two other circus showmen, brothers Tom and Sam Baldwin. Thomas Scott Baldwin acted as a leader and star performer for the Baldwin Brothers troupe, while Samuel Yates Baldwin often served in a more supportive way, such as fueling a balloon.¹⁴ The Baldwins knew about a rising and talented young acrobat named William Ivy through contacts with many of their circus colleagues. Tom Baldwin had actually worked with Ivy as an acrobat in 1883. They decided to recruit Ivy as a Baldwin show tightrope walker, trapeze performer and balloonist. They wrote to Ivy, proposing that they form an exhibition team. William Ivy was receptive to the Baldwin proposal, which would lead to becoming virtually a partner. He reported to the Baldwin Brothers headquarters and Baldwin home in Quincy, Illinois, in the fall of 1889. Very quickly, Tom Baldwin and Ivy combined various stunts and soon added dramatic parachuting from a balloon.¹⁵

      Thomas Baldwin, manager of the Baldwin Brothers show, had already earned a reputation as an outstanding aeronaut in the United States. Furthermore, his athletic appearance impressed crowds along with his daring acts. An English journalist described Tom Baldwin as "a clean- limbed, well-built man, evidently of enormous muscular strength, and

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